Thursday, October 23, 2008

Chivda and chakli time

Diwali is the official excuse. I have been munching non-stop since my return from Paris (to make up for all the cheese.... oooh.... how i love that fromage)! I needed something spicey and lethal to get those tastebuds to start functioning again. I found the perfect answer in bakarwadis, chaklis and the indecently tasty Kolhapuri chivda. Then there were the puran polis to 'sample' (after three of them - one with homemade ghee, another soaked in warm milk and the third eaten with bits of green chilly pickle), I had to stop calling it 'sampling'. Okay. I hogged. Gunaah hai kya??Just to keep my mind off food, I wrote and wrote and wrote all day. And changed my voice on the phone whenever someone I didn't wish to speak to called up.I am like Kishore Kumar - I do voices. Pretty convincingly at that. Since I answer most calls myself, my 'official' voice is pretty scarey. Does it deter the determined? Naaaah.Tomorrow, I head to Bandra yet again. This time to shoot with Karan Thapar. I don't know why interviewees shudder and shake at the prospect of being grilled by Thapar. He is an absolute pussycat - I adore him. He has interviewed me many times over the years and I have always found the experience exhilerating. This one promises to be a real cracker of an interview. Karan told me I am seen as a symbol of liberal, progressive, exciting Mumbai. Cry, my beloved city. We don't need symbols. We need a Rapid Action Force in areas that are being ravaged. Well.... I shall do my best as a symbol. But frankly, Mumbai needs a chief minister who knows his job far more!

Welcome back! Your Deauville experience sounds like it was very fulfilling. I would have loved to have been a fly on any wall there.

Who were the speakers that impressed the most? What topics did you cover during your own writers corner seminar?

Oh and did you get to meet or hear Ingrid Betancourt? Last year, Betancourt was face of many many women, mostly unsung who display at best the fortitude and innate courage and resilience that makes us women.

And ofcourse did you add any names to the list of "must eat here in France"? For a gourmet and freguent world traveller like you, your list must be really long. Did you ever write about it? Have you written a book where food was the main protagonist? Food as hero so to speak. Hot Dog!!! Joseph Campbell would have been proud of me @ "Food as Hero" hehehehehehe. That would make for very sensual, soul satisfying reading! Anyone seen the Japanese movie Tampopo? It is all about food. I reccomend it very highly. Quirky and sensual with really good cinematography.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/plotsummary

Karan Thapar, I just youtubed the man. Me likey!!! I am sure the both of you do play well off each other. When does the show air? Will someone please youtube the show, so that we may all see what Shobhaa had to say. Damn, did I just use "to youtube" as a verb?

And yeah, Vilasrao's administration needs to get a grip and act decisively where violence is concerned. I am not so sure he is morally motivated to definitively stop violence. Few administrations seem to be. Political expediency is more the norm with most Maharashtra Governments.

Voice modulation and all haan. What rubbish. Your voice is not scarey, SEXY is the word. there is this little huskiness in your voice that I adore. and how can i forget your voice, you had judged my first ever stage performance in khalsa college invited by papia guha.

I am not maska maaring, but you ARE seen as a symbol of liberal and exciting Bombay. By the way, st xaviers ki havaa paani ka asar hai kya??? or what happened with the two babes with similar looking names... Shabana, Shobhaa that both have some similar thread of love,passion,empathy for the emerging Bombay. ???

Well Another Kiran In NYC- you should log on to ibnlive.com for all the Karan Thapar interviews. You will instantaneously fall in love with his interviewing acumen. Click on 'Shows' and then look out for 'Devil's Advocate', his show. You will see many politicians on that list. The latest episode however being that with Arundhati Roy. Youtube doesn't have enough of Karan Thapar's in-depth full version episodes. So youtube-ing doesn't help in this case.... And do consider a makeover of your blogspot name please. It's a bit annoying! (: *A Suyashh In LA* lol

A solution of making Mumbai, Bombay- and then the next big thing in Asia: that is to consider it as autonomous. The state government should get away from the city and settle down somewhere in Sangli or New Bombay or something and operate from there the rest of the state. Bombay should have a CEO and Bombay should run like a corporate powerhouse. There should be someone like Michael Bloomberg to manage Bombay like a business empire. i think BMC and other crappy bureaucracies make things more complicated in that already over complicated multi cultural society. P. Chidambaram has once been quoted saying that, that Bombay City should have self-governed autonomous administration to make it in to the top league of world cities! another solution is that to have a ruler/ entrepreneur like Ali Maktoum of Dubai!!! Dubai can easily let Shanghai down these days!

Hello Maa'm...you said "I am like Kishore Kumar - I do voices" I know that you were quite active in the 70's in film magazine production. You must have come across Mr Kishore Kumar quite a few times. Please do write your experiences with him, especially related to the above comment of yours.

"Double Seven".. Thanks for the website address. I love to see De's interview with Karan. Dubai's ruler name is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Of course it is a different ball game here when it comes to administration/ governance. I don't think that would work in India, where every one of us is a "Ruler".

hey Maddy- India/ Bombay needs a ruler-entrepreneur-visionary-philanthropist like Mr Maktoum is all that I meant in my last comment. India/ Bombay needs some one who truly thinks the problems facing this population explosion struck city which proudly boasts of being the financial hub of South Asia! Refer to the article by Karan Thapar on yesterday's Hindustan Times about Bombay becoming Mumbai...

Okay so I watched the interview on ibnline.com (Thanks for the tipoff DoubleSeven).

I think you were brilliant, extremely reasonable and made your points very decisively. I am in awe!

About Karan Thapar... his questioning was combative.. true, but I grant him that in his role as the Devils advocate. However, after you had answered brilliantly, I did not appreciate his propensity to put words in your mouth and paraphrase your opinions in a way that twisted the original meaning of your answer. It was blatant and did not serve him well, in a natural segue into his next related question. That was distasteful and not within the realm of responsible TV journalism as an interviewer. I certainly take issue with that.

A great interview on your part! Your interviewer however could brush up on his TV interviewing ethics. Me not so likey Karan Thapar this time. I tried to likey... I really did :)

Mrs. Another Kiran in NYC, You are absolutely right actually with this interview by KT; he wasn't his usual devil's advocate player this time!On the contrary however- check out his interview with Ram Jethmalani; that interview won him some best television interviewer award of Asia or something like that :).And when he was interviewing Narendra Modi, when he raised the question of he being a terrorist that moment Narendra Modi just called off and started walking off from the place!Karan Thapar was really nice to Shobhaa De I think... because the issue at stake was not that grave or something... it was not a national issue that Bombay had become Mumbai or something like that... :)Also check out his interview with P. Chidambaram, Praful Patel, Rahul Bajaj, and please also- Jyotiraditya Scindia (according to the issue that was at stake, for me I 'likey' this one with Scindia: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/devils-advocate-jyotiraditya-on-political-young-guns/46697-3.html )

Last but not the least- check out this Omar Abdullah's revolutionary speech (hila dene waali)

I think though- that De was a little too conscious about saying that she is a Bombayite (and not Mumbaikar) rather than what she said about being an Indian first.She was looking at the larger perspective- sure thing!

But the context with which that last question was asked was about personal preference of being called what rather than anything else. :)On the whole, the interview was quite a good watch.And De your ornament which you wore around the neck was so over-the-top eye-candy man!Too magnifying, so to say... :)

Uma,I am not gonna defend Shobhaa only because I love her but because I love her writing too! :)I don't understand that if people don't like someone's work then why should they be keeping track of her blog! Preposterous...!

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